rio tinto fallout can only hurt australia, page-8

Stern scepticism.

The international mining industry is deeply sceptical over Rio Tinto's claims that the four men at the centre of the Chinese corruption scandal acted alone. Even the minority who believe Stern Hu and his colleagues were acting without executive knowledge, say that senior Rio Tinto executives should have known what was happening.

In a survey of delegates at last week's Mines and Money conference in Hong Kong, almost half of the respondees said they believe senior Rio Tinto executives were actually aware of the men's activities (36% said they were unsure of the level of corporate involvement). Only 16% believe the executives were not aware of the corruption but, damningly, three-quarters of these respondees went on to say that the executives should have known.

Whatever the truth, a massive 88% of the respondees said that senior executives at Rio Tinto should have been aware of the bribery and stealing of commercial secrets by their employees in Shanghai. Only 5% said that it was unreasonable to expect the executives to have been aware (7% were unsure).

In any event, over 68% of the respondees said that the prison sentences would have no impact on investment sentiment towards China. A similar percentage, including the majority of the Australians amongst the respondees, said that there should be no change in restrictions against Chinese natural resource acquisitions in Australia.

http://www.mining-journal.com/production-and-markets/stern-scepticism